The love affair between 26-year-old Kerolainy Lourenço da Silva and studying — particularly high school — would make a movie. After all, it is a relationship that involves separation, flirting, getting back together and other “characters” as the plot unfolds.
Curiosity struck? Don't worry we didn't give spoiler: This is just a trailer of what's to come. And, without further ado, let’s follow the thread of this story – which, by the way, will continue.
At 16, Kerolainy became pregnant with Camilly, her first daughter, who is now ten years old. “As I had no support network, I was forced to stop studying”, says the woman who became a mother “very early”, in her own words.
In addition to taking care of her daughter and working, she also moved to another city. He left his homeland, the municipality of Abreu e Lima, in the metropolitan region of Recife, to live in Olinda, also in the state of Pernambuco.
Seeking better living conditions, she took a new direction, this time to São Paulo. In the capital of São Paulo, she became the mother of two more children: Kauã, now 5 years old, and Heloísa Maria, who turns 3 in July 2023.
From cinema to bicycle
The year the youngest was born, Kerolainy worked in the cinema. In this case, behind the scenes: she was a ticket agent at a complex of projection rooms on Rua Augusta.
However, with a young daughter at home, the hours required by the role became “very demanding” in her routine. It was motherhood, once again, giving a boost to the destiny of rapprochement with student life.
She then decided to change professions. That's when iFood entered the scene in his life — and became an important actor in the direction of this story. At the end of 2021, Kerolainy started making deliveries through the platform to earn income during more flexible working hours.
Her current partner, Heloísa Maria's father, was already registered on the app and encouraged her. She then adopted the bicycle to make deliveries in the central region of São Paulo.
At the beginning of 2022, Kerolainy received a notice via the app about the offer of scholarships for the program My High School Diploma. This scholarship granted by iFood pays for the preparatory course for the National Exam for Certification of Skills for Young People and Adults, the test that gives the certificate of completion of secondary education.
“At first I was quite excited, but then I thought about giving up because of the time needed to dedicate myself to my studies”, she recalls. It was then that she received a call from iFood itself. “A person from the company called me to encourage me to do the program.”
“I help you, mommy”
But the most convincing argument of all for her to return to her studies came from home. “Camily, my eldest daughter, was very happy with the possibility of me going back to school and told me: 'I'll help you, mommy'.”
It was the little push that was needed. After all, advancing stages in one's own education also means, for Kerolainy, “setting an example for one's children, encouraging them to study, to go to college”.
The help proposed by Camilly, in addition to moral support, included periods of company for the two brothers, so that the mother had more time available to dedicate herself to studies. “She sat with them in the room to entertain them while I studied,” he says.
The strategy paid off. Kerolainy was one of the 950 delivery girls and delivery partners of iFood who passed the test and completed high school.
O graduation event of the first class of the My High School Diploma program was held in January 2023 at the iFood headquarters, in Osasco. “I was very proud of myself, I thought I wouldn't make it,” she says.
It was a happy ending to a stage in the life of this woman from Pernambuco. But your journey continues, in search of new achievements.
Big dream
Today, we have plenty of news to create new scripts for Kerolainy's story. Doubt? Well, now let's give some spoilers.
In 2022, Kerolainy swapped her job as a delivery girl for that of an entrepreneur. She now has a sweet shop on the iFood platform, Maravidoces. “They’re really wonderful”, he reinforces.
At the same time, he has another big dream: to take a higher education course in gastronomy. The opportunity can also come through iFood, which already offers scholarships for delivery drivers who graduate from My High School Diploma to take courses at FAM (Faculty of the Americas).
Let's wait, then, for the scenes from the next chapters. But, regardless of them, one thing is certain: Camilly, Kauã and Heloísa Maria can now be very proud of the mother they have.
